1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an ultrasonic measurement apparatus that detects a blood vessel position using an ultrasonic wave.
2. Related Art
As an example of measuring biological information using an ultrasonic wave, the evaluation of a vascular function including the determination of a vascular disease is performed. For example, the intima media thickness (IMT) of the carotid artery, which is an indicator of arteriosclerosis, is measured. In such measurement, the position or shape of a blood vessel of the tissue in the body is measured.
JP-A-2009-66268 discloses a technique of estimating and modeling the position or shape of the carotid artery based on a B-mode image that is a cross-sectional image of the carotid artery. In this technique, focusing on the movement of the artery due to beating of the heart, generation of an evaluation function of a model, optimization for estimating the position or shape of the carotid artery of the next frame, and modeling are repeated for each frame.
In the technique disclosed in JP-A-2009-66268, since the generation of an evaluation function, optimization, and modeling are repeatedly performed for each frame, calculation processing related to measurement becomes complicated. Accordingly, there has been a problem in that the amount of calculation is increased.